Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)

Raise your character to the pinnacle of magical might with Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Magic! Within this book, secrets arcane and divine lie ready to burst into life at the hands of all the spellcasting classes in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. In addition to the brand-new magus class—a master of both arcane magic and martial prowess—you'll also find a whole new system for spellcasting, rules for spell duels and other magical specialities, and pages upon pages of new spells, feats, and more. Because when it comes to magic, why settle for less than absolute power?

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Magic is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. This imaginitive tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Magic includes:

The magus, a new base class combining deadly arcane magic with the skills and weapons of a trained warrior.

yes! Yes! YES!!! Did I mention HELL YES?!!!! More exclamation points!!! My first wish for this book is that they create a PF version of the Ultimate Magus from the Complete Mage. I'm going to save my other 2 wishes for later.

This is very unlikely. Multiple 320+ page books in a single year = short drive to the Loony Bin for all of us here at Paizo. And then there'd be NO hardcover books from Paizo, because they won't let us use computers in the Loony Bin.

This is very unlikely. Multiple 320+ page books in a single year = short drive to the Loony Bin for all of us here at Paizo. And then there'd be NO hardcover books from Paizo, because they won't let us use computers in the Loony Bin.

This is very unlikely. Multiple 320+ page books in a single year = short drive to the Loony Bin for all of us here at Paizo. And then there'd be NO hardcover books from Paizo, because they won't let us use computers in the Loony Bin.

This book looks awesome! I don't even have my APG yet and now I am anxiously awaiting the play test(s) (I hope we see the magus and the new magic system!), and for the book to be released. So many cool new things to add to my characters!

any chance there will be a playtest on the Words of Power magic system?

Please

There's a chance, yes.

Public playtests WILL continue as long as we're doing hardcover books. They won't always be super-extensive, though, and some books will skip this stage. We haven't yet decided what parts of Ultimate Magic will be publicly playtested, but I'm pretty sure the magus class will be one of them. The Words of Power rules are likely to be another... and that'll PROBABLY be it for this book's playtest. It's not something we're likely to nail down and decide on for sure until after Gen Con, though.

any chance there will be a playtest on the Words of Power magic system?

Please

There's a chance, yes.

Public playtests WILL continue as long as we're doing hardcover books. They won't always be super-extensive, though, and some books will skip this stage. We haven't yet decided what parts of Ultimate Magic will be publicly playtested, but I'm pretty sure the magus class will be one of them. The Words of Power rules are likely to be another... and that'll PROBABLY be it for this book's playtest. It's not something we're likely to nail down and decide on for sure until after Gen Con, though.

Man I'm barely containing myself at the prospect of getting the APG pdf tomorrow and now I discover this... Curse you Paizo I'm now wishing my days away lol

Book looks amazing though... out of interest will some of the new magic class options build on the archetypes or the base classes? [or both??] - as in say just bard options/spells or some geared towards say the Savage Skald [hint-hint lol]...

Some concept questions, will the Magus "feel different" than classes like Eldritch Knight or a Spell-sword? I guess the root of the question is will it be different than "I wield a sword! and I cast spells through it!"?

I doubt you can give details yet, but if so, how will it be different in concept?

I had to pour through the APG Spells and Feats to see if WotC had any duplicates. I usually use WotC's as a default, with exceptions (such as using Lunge over Lunging Strike).

I do the same with spells. It bugs me having "duplicate" spells, where a WotC spell and a Pathfinder spell do almost the same thing with a few twists or a change in spell level and I have to scour each one and make a Word file reference which material is stamped "Confirmed" or "Denied" on it, basically. (for example, there's the Tsunami spell in Spell Compendium and Tsunami in the APG; the one in the Spell Compendium is clearly better than the APG, so I ruled the duplicate in APG out my games)

So, my one request to Paizo staff, look at your WotC books, particularly the Spell Compendium, and try not to make duplicates. The same with feats! It's kinda annoying and tiresome :D Be unique!

I had to pour through the APG Spells and Feats to see if WotC had any duplicates. I usually use WotC's as a default, with exceptions (such as using Lunge over Lunging Strike).

I do the same with spells. It bugs me having "duplicate" spells, where a WotC spell and a Pathfinder spell do almost the same thing with a few twists or a change in spell level and I have to scour each one and make a Word file reference which material is stamped "Confirmed" or "Denied" on it, basically. (for example, there's the Tsunami spell in Spell Compendium and Tsunami in the APG; the one in the Spell Compendium is clearly better than the APG, so I ruled the duplicate in APG out my games)

So, my one request to Paizo staff, look at your WotC books, particularly the Spell Compendium, and try not to make duplicates. The same with feats! It's kinda annoying and tiresome :D Be unique!

That makes no sense for Paizo. They are interested in new players, and new players should rather be spending $ on Paizo books, instead of scrambling for out-of-print WotC books. So, there will be some overlap.

(for example, there's the Tsunami spell in Spell Compendium and Tsunami in the APG; the one in the Spell Compendium is clearly better than the APG

The second part of this isn't really a surprise. Pathfinder has attempted to address the disparity between full spellcasters and those who are not, both by increasing the power of the non-casters and by scaling back the power of many spells. Any duplication in spells is almost invariably going to have the Pathfinder version be weaker by design.

That said, I know there is going to be some duplication based on the sheer volume of old material.

So that I know how excited to get about it, I would like to know one thing.

Does the Magus cast prepared, or spontaneous magic, and what casting stat does it use?

If I were doing it (but I'm not), I think that I would have tried to make it a sorcerer bloodline.

But they are planning on a new base class. There are some things which you can infer about the class from knowledge of the rules.

1. They will probably have the medium (cleric) BAB.
2. They will probably have a d8 hit points.
3. They will probably have good Fortitiude and Will saving throws.
4. They will probably have light armor proficiency and not have arcane spell failure in light armor.
5. There will be a Magus spell list which will be more combat oriented than the bard spell list, but which won't have the most powerful sorcerer/wizard spells. The spell list will includes 1st through 6th level spells.
6. They will probably have simple weapons and a subset of martial weapons.

The Bard would be a good starting point for speculation. Replace the bard spell list with the magus spell list and the bardic class abilities with magus abilities. (Better armor or weapon selections, channeling spells through weapons, expending spells for bonuses, etc).